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She smelled of orange blossom and almonds, homemade biscuits and patience.
“Sometime this weekend.” I wished I didn’t sound so winded. My voice came out in thin, thready rasps.
Cluck-Cluck trotted in front of us, pulling her leash left and right to examine the trees and flower beds along the sidewalk. Every once in a while, she’d stop to peck the ground, her red comb wobbling, and come up with a wriggling bug or worm.
Hannah had switched to singing about dreams and wishes and hearts, using the lights on her sneakers to add emphasis to certain words.Asleep,flash.Rainbow,flash.True,flash. She was a one-woman show in the making.
“What I’d give to live beachfront,” Jolly said. “It’s a dream.”
Hannah, who might have hearing as good as mine, shouted, “Mawmaw, don’t you know a dream is a wish your heart makes!” The last word was followed by a foot stamp and a flash of pink light.
“That’s right, honey. It sure is.” Jolly leaned into me, dropped her voice low. “If I never seeCinderellaagain, it’ll be too damn soon. I’m startin’ to root for the evil stepmother.” In her regular voice she picked up our conversation where she’d left off. “I’m sure you’ve already figured out that Dez is a hoot and a half. His wife, Tuppence, was, too. A real firecracker. That woman could command a room like no one’s business.”
My heart pounded, my pulse sounding like a bass drum in my ear. “Did she pass away?” I asked, finally finding the courage to say the words aloud.
Jolly nodded. “She was lost to the sea. It was one of those days where the water looked calm but wasn’t. She got caught in a riptide and couldn’t get out of it. They never did find herbody. Terrible tragic.” Jolly looked at me, her plump face suddenly sharp and stern. “You need to be careful in the water, Ava. The beach here didn’t have warning flags back in those days but it does now—they were actually put up because of what happened to Tuppence. Pay attention to them. If they’re yellow, you best be extra careful in the water. If they’re red, you’d be a damn fool to go in. If they’re double red, you have a death wish or a fervent desire to pay a big fine or even get arrested—it’s illegal to go in the water when double reds are flying.”
“I’ll pay attention,” I said, my heart breaking for Maggie. “I promise. How long ago did all that happen?”
“It’s been a good twenty-five years now, thereabouts. Maggie hasn’t stepped in the water since. And she tried to keep her boy out of it, too, but sometimes he’d sneak off with friends to swim. Maggie about lost her mind when she found out. Have you met Noah yet?”
I shook my head.
“He’s a darling boy. Smart as a whip. Studying dinosaurs at college. Dinosaurs, of all things. Did you know you can find fossils on the beach? Sure enough. Shark teeth, sand dollars, and plant… stuff.” She waved a hand. “Noah’ll tell you more about it when you meet him, I’m quite sure. He knows all the fancy terms.”
Jolly’s words had started to swirl in my head, and I stumbled on a crack on the sidewalk. I righted myself before I fell, but my feet suddenly felt leaden. My vision clouded, and I blinked to clear it.
I hadn’t eaten before coming out today, and that had been a mistake. I’d stop at Break an Egg, the breakfast diner, to get something to eat after we were done walking. The thought of eggs, though, soured my stomach. Pancakes? My stomach rolled. Hash? No. Definitely not. I’d figure something out, but for now I needed to stop thinking about it or risk getting sick right here in the flower beds.
I suddenly heard the whooshing of a heartbeat and looked around. The monarch with the white wing was floating nearby,dipping and rising, turning and tilting. The poor thing looked to be having terrible trouble flying.
If the butterfly was Alex, that made sense, I supposed. He’d been a terrible driver. The absolute worst.
But if it was him, why was he still here? Following me around?
Jollytsked, throwing a glance at Magpie’s. “All this talk about Dez selling the coffee shop has the town up in arms. No one knows why he’s even contemplating it, considering how Maggie feels about her mama coming back. You can already see the stress it’s causing her, which she does not need, considering her blood-pressure issues. Dez has received several strongly voiced phone calls this week, I can tell you that. Maggie has more surrogate mamas in this town than you can shake a stick at.”
“What do you mean, considering how Maggie feels about her mama coming back?” I asked, the words catching in my throat, sticking there.
“Oh, bless her heart. The only way Maggie was able to cope with her grief was to believe Tuppence had simply gone missing and would come back one day.”
Oh no.
“It’s why she keeps the shop the same,” Jolly says. “She wants it to be just as it was when her mama left.”
My heart broke. Simply split wide open.
“At first, Dez held out hope, too, praying that Tuppence would be rescued or found clinging to a piece of driftwood or washed up somewhere having amnesia orsomething. After a while, reality set in, but he kept up pretenses for Maggie’s sake. They never had a memorial service or funeral or nothing.”
Terrible tragic,Jolly had said. It didn’t even come close to describing this situation.
“So the town goes along with it, too?” I asked, knowing even as I asked that they did. It explained why Rose had been avoiding Maggie’s questions the other day.
Jolly nodded. “At first it was so she simply didn’t break from the grief of it all. Then, it never seemed the right time. After a good while, some wanted to say something, just to get it out inthe open. An intervention of sorts was planned, then canceled. No one could quite bring themselves to do it, because we knew it’d hurt her. Then we stopped trying altogether because somewhere along the way, Maggie got us hoping, too. Why not? Why not hope for a miracle? If nothing else, she’s taught us a thing or two about love.”
I swiped a tear from the corner of my eye. I wanted to run to the coffee shop, hug Maggie.
“Miz Ava,” Hannah said, skipping back to me. “When’ll Junebear be done? I miss her.”
